Prayers That Will Change Your Life, #3: Vital Life | Jim Hammond
Recap
Pastor Jim taught the third message in his four-part series entitled, “Prayers That Will Change Your Life.” In this message, he expounded on the prayer in Philippians 1:6, 9–11. He reiterated that these biblical prayers are anointed and when you pray them over your loved ones—and yourself too—they get results. Pastor Jim says he prays these prayers over the Living Word congregation regularly, and his desire is that Living Word members would also develop the discipline to pray these prayers on a regular basis as well.
Dive Deeper
These prayers are fundamental.
Praying these prayers is not something you do for three or four weeks and then stop saying, “They don’t work.” As you pray these prayers regularly, you can compare it to building a metaphorical fort. It takes time to build that fort. Soon six months, nine months down the road, you’ll start to see the momentum behind these prayers.
Pastor Jim’s stated goal is to inspire the Living Word congregation to pray these prayers out loud, two times a day. He said, “I believe we will see the difference in this congregation.”
Joshua 1:8, “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.”
God instructed Joshua on how to lead 2 and ½ million people. The Lord said to Joshua that the Book of the Law “shall not depart out of your mouth.” That means Joshua was not to stop speaking the Word.
In fact, he was to meditate on it day and night so “you may observe and do all that is written in it.”
That’s what we need to do… to be like Joshua, where we meditate on the word day and night. Never stop speaking it. If we keep up that discipline, we’ll observe and do all that is written in it.
The Strong’s Concordance says the Hebrew word for meditate means “to murmur.” There are ten words that the word meditate means. Five of them are speaking: murmur, mutter, speak, talk, utter. The Lord is telling Joshua to speak it… all day!
In Matthew 7:7–8, Jesus said to “Ask and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.”
Jesus instructed them to keep on asking and it will be given to you. Keep on seeking and you will find it. Keep on knocking and the door will be opened for you. Every person that keeps on asking will receive. Pastor Jim says, “I believe these Pauline prayers are the types of prayers Jesus was talking about when He said to keep praying, keep knocking, keep asking.”
Read About It
Joshua 1:8, “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.”
Matthew 7:7–8 “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: 8 For everyone that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.”
Colossians 1:9, “For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding…”
Discussion Questions
Do you have a consistent prayer life? If not, why?
Can you see yourself working these anointed prayers into your times of prayer?